


I Wanted You To Be Better, And Then You Were.

by andoverolives



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Avengers Compound, F/M, Howard Stark Isnt too bad maybe, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Peter Parker, Multi, Parent Tony Stark, Past Child Abuse, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Scared Peter Parker, This doesn't really follow any time travel 'rules' but it made me happy, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Wetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-10-24 19:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20711459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andoverolives/pseuds/andoverolives
Summary: Peggy Carter and the 'Gang' accidentally get caught up in a time-traveling problem that sends them from 1989 and into the future. They'll meet with Fury and some of the Avengers and learn about whats happened after their gone. They also learn they're gonna meet the Tony from the future, and Howard can't help but be anxious about what his son is like now. Surely he hadn't messed him up too much.





	I Wanted You To Be Better, And Then You Were.

**Author's Note:**

> I had this Idea randomly and thought I would put it to good use. Also just a fluffy baby Peter and Tony that I really wanted to be in the world.

In all the years of dealing with international threats and strange occurrences, nothing had ever stumped him as this particular situation did. 

Nick Fury had never given much thought to time travel, as it seemed to be something that he would learn about should he ever need to. 

Never in his life would he of expected he’d learn about it by getting calls from the late Director appearing to have shown up in the old S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters.

So now he was here, waiting on the jet Romanoff had flown over for them to arrive back at the Compound. 

The Compound had been agreed on to be the best place for everybody involved to get on the same page and to start explaining.

Time Travel had brought four people (who in today's time are all dead) into this timeline from 1989.

Peggy Carter was currently sitting with Maria Stark and Edwin Jarvis as they talked amongst themselves. Peggy had been eyeing Natasha most of the flight, curious and wary but not saying anything. Howard had been more or less pacing the length of the space, every now and then glancing at the controls and more modern technology at the front of the jet. 

Not much had been said to them regarding the future, but they were all curious, or in Howard's case highly nervous.

Yet nothing confused them more as when they began to exit the jet after landing, Maria Stark asked Nick Fury a rather odd question.

“Fury, why does that panel say ‘Jarvis is my co-pilot’?” 

Peggy swore she saw a smirk appear on Natasha Romanoff's face at the question.

\-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Two hours. 

It took Fury and the rest of the Avengers to get through their explanation about what exactly was happening. It wasn't a boring affair per se but watching Peggy slap a very alive Steve Rogers had caused Sam and Clint to fall into the floor breathless from laughing so hard.

They had settled into a large enough conference room and had gotten FRIDAY to blackout the windows. They had simply fallen into the motion of answering random questions from Jarvis, Maria, and Peggy. Questions about the world in modern times to their own personal lives. Fury had left at some point, grumbling about a headache coming on and having work to do.

They had gone over the Avengers initiative and its active members, skimming over the question from Jarvis on who operated the armor. They had sent Rhodey to find and inform Tony of the current events taking place. They were being as careful as possible from revealing too much as is.

He would take the news better coming from Rhodey. 

Though nobody had said anything, they were all quite concerned about the fact that Howard had remained quiet most of the time. He was listening if his facial expressions were anything to go by, but unlike his wife, he hadn't opened his mouth. 

Steve had known the man to be quite outgoing, but he had also changed 40 years from that time.

If anything he looked troubled with something the entire time.

Of all the things he had learned about, not a single person had mentioned his company’s future or his son. And it was actually scaring him.

He had always known how much of a lousy father he had been to his only kid, it was hardly something he was or ever will be proud of. And although he would not admit it out loud, he will blame himself if Tony’s life had not turned out well.

If his son had never reached his full potential then it would be Howard's fault. Utterly and completely. He was silently praying Maria would ask for both of them.

Who else was there to blame, the kid had him as a role model. The outcome of that would never end well. He had hoped that maybe Jarvis would rub off on him more than he had.

So sitting in the conference room with all of these people, he couldn't help but think the worst. He had messed his only kid, his only son up so badly that they might not even tell him about it?

It was frightening. What happened with his son that they had deemed it unmentionable.

He had to know. Then he could go back to his time and try to fix his shortcomings as a future. If what they had said about his and Maria's death was anything to go by, he didn’t have a lot of time. Not something they went into great detail about. Though when Fury told them, he noticed how most people in the room tensed. He was wondering if that would be talked about later on.

Yet, you would think they would at least mention anything that he had left behind.

As the minutes ticked along, the fear and stress of not knowing worked his courage up enough to finally ask. Never in his life had he been so scared to speak or ask a question. That alone scared him more.

However, right as he was starting to push himself to talk, the A.I. spoke before he could.

“Ms. Romanoff. I must inform you there has been an incident with Peter.” the voice caused all avengers to tense up again once again. 

All through the discussion, they had before, no one had mentioned a Peter. They had been spoken to about Sergeant Barnes and that he was not going to be making an appearance, sure, but nothing about a person named Peter.

“FRIDAY what happened,” Steve asked urgently. 

“Sergeant Barnes is approaching,” was the only answer he got in return from the voice.

Not seconds later Bucky Barnes did walk in, much to the slight shock of the out of place guests. Bucky spared them no attention and went straight for Steve and Natasha.

What really threw them off was the little boy held by the metal arm on Bucky's right.

“Guys, we have a..” he looked down at the boy “..situation.” 

“Bucky what happened? Why is his head bleeding?” Natasha started to ask him. 

Bucky sighed, “'m not really sure,” he pulled out the chair from the head of the table and gently set the little boy down to sit. “One minute I was trying to get him to nap, and when I wake FRIDAY was saying that there was an explosion in Stark’s lab and that Peter was down there.” 

As he said it the little boy, Peter presumably, started to fold his hands in his lap and he furrowed his eyebrows. He looked ready to cry but seemed almost stoic. Peter looked to Howard no older than four years old, but then again he wasn't a big children person. Still, it was unsettling to see a kid so emotionless.

Peggy, Jarvis, Howard, and Maria sat quietly and listened to the conversation. Confusion taking over all of their minds. Questions bouncing around each of their heads.

“He wasn't even crying, and he wouldn't say anything.” Bucky turned to look at the small figure in the black rolling chair, “I don't know what to do.”

It was quiet for a moment. Until Clint suggested they call Tony. 

After he suggested it, two things happened. 

Howard perked up at the name, hoping they were talking about his Tony. Yet at the same time, Peter was not as enthused.

His eyes widened as the tears that had been held back well before, now broke loose.

The little boy started full-on crying, then started wailing. 

“No! Don’ call my daddy!” His wails were drawn out and his face was already bright red. He had gone from stoic to sobbing so quickly he looked like a completely different child.

It seemed to have startled not only the time travelers but the avengers as well. They all started at the kid in the chair who was continuing to almost pleading with them to not call his Dad.

Dad.

Howard felt physically sick at the connection. It could have been a different Tony. Surely there was more than one Tony that they knew. His son might not have even been a dad. What kind of dad does this kid have to completely freak out at the prospect if his dad coming to see him when he was hurt?

Sadly, he had a feeling they were all talking about the same person. The thought alone was enough for his own eyes to sting a little. He had fucked up.

Peter continued to sob and cry. He wrapped his arms around himself in a sad attempt to comfort himself. 

Natasha slowly lowered herself in front of the wailing kid, “Peter honey, why not?”

No reasonable response was given except the child begging her with numerous wet pleads of ‘please no’. Most everyone in the room was hurt by the kid's behavior, yet none knew what to do.

It only worsened when FRIDAY spoke up again. “Boss has just entered the Compound. He will be at this location in 3 minutes.”

That seemed to scared Peter more than anything else. He threw himself out of the chair and he hit the carpet with a small thud, shocking the people in the room.

He managed to right himself and bolt over to the corner of the room like a scared baby animal, and bundle himself up into a ball and hugged his legs to his chest. He continued to cry into his knees. His whole body was shaking with sobs that overcame his small body.

The heroes were startled and were looking at each other with alarmed expressions, almost like they had never seen the behavior before. 

They seemed to want to go over to the cowering figure in the corner, Clint even tried to. Steve stopped him though, he shook his head and motioned them all over back towards the table, further from the boy.

Howard's thoughts continued to spiral as his wife grabbed his hand, looking at her face showed she was most likely on the same train of thought he was. He didn't want to think the worst, but what was he supposed to think? Peter was shaking he was so terrified.

As they all gathered back around the table, all of them now standing, Peggy gasped. Her hand moved to cover her mouth as she looked at the boy. They all followed her gaze back to the corner. 

A growing spot had appeared on the boy's pajama pants and the carpet underneath him.

Peggy and Maria started to move around the table towards the little ball Peter had managed to make himself.

The door opened before they could though. It was quietly opened and was gently shut. 

A man walked into the room in a dark, almost black suit. He walked forward in the room like he was trying to not make any noise, but wanting to be quick at the same time. He reached up to his face and took off the red-tinted sunglasses. He set them on the table as he walked the length of it.

He looked at the Peter on the floor and glanced back at the group behind him. He looked at them with a strange expression before turning back to Peter and started to shrug off his suit jacket.

When he had glanced back at them, they got a full view of his face. Tony had swept his eyes over all of them, his face was unreadable though.

It took the breath out of Howard and Maria, and it shocked Jarvis and Peggy to the floor. None of them seemed to be able to move. All of them anxious to see what he would do with the terrified kid on the floor.

With his jacket in one hand, he made his way over to the sobbing boy, and slowly lowered himself down to the floor a few feet in front of him. He quietly called out the boy's name and that seemed to make the child more aware of his surroundings. A faint plea suppressed by shaking sobs of ‘please’ and ‘I’m sorry’ left the child's huddled form.

Maria looked at the heroes beside them, trying to get an idea of what was happening. But the heroes were looking at the scene in front of them just as confused as they were. At what appeared to be her son and her grandson.

Jarvis though, had taken note of the way the man had carried himself into the room. The boy he had practically raised! It was a grown version of the boy he had just dropped back off at MIT not even a few weeks ago. 

He also noticed how tense and locked his shoulders had been walking away from the door. How now as he crouched in front of the toddler, he became more relaxed. Shutting everyone else in the room out to focus on the child.

He had done that plenty of times at the larger parties Howard had thrown in their home. He noticed it and understood it without hesitation. 

He would not hurt the boy. Much to his own relief. Remembering the example that had been set so poorly for Tony during his own childhood had stuck with him as Jarvis had always hoped it would.

Glancing at the others beside him, he realized they had not come to this realization as he had. They weren't as close with Tony as he had grown up as he had been.

Tony shut them out of his room mentally. Focusing only on the baby in front of him who was currently scared out of this mind.

He got onto his knees just out of arm's length of the boy. He had a suspicion as to what was happening, but that didn’t ease the nausea building in his stomach. Or the sadness he felt looking at his kid.

The kid had been in foster care for not even a few weeks before Tony had swiped him up. His biological parents were complete drug addicts. Not even caring for the main necessities of the child, and it had drawn the attention of social services. 

Tony didn’t know the parents, but he frankly didn’t want to. He knew that should he ever meet them he would most likely put them into a coma.

Peter had been living with Tony and Pepper for roughly five months and had just turned four in the middle of that. For such a small and growing child, Peter was quiet. He always used excellent manners and was the sweetest he could be to everyone. Not once had the boy misbehaved or stepped out of line, though there were hardly any lines to begin with.   
Peter had never acted anything but polite and sweet towards his adoptive parents. Once in a while, the little boy would become sleepy and grumpy, but even those were rare occasions.

Tony wished to wrap the boy in the softest blanket he could find and never let anything harm the boy ever again. He knew eventually something like this could possibly happen, but he’d never expected it to be like this.

Not with the four people behind him that were currently there. Or at least that's what he hoped it was.

“Peter,” Tony called again gently, trying not to scare him any more than he already was.

The boy, however, didn’t respond and didn’t seem like he was going to. So Tony sat down and leaned against the wall perpendicular to the one that Peter has curled himself upon. There was enough space between them to hopefully not get him worked up anymore. 

After a few moments, Peter peaked his face out from his knees and gazed at Tony with red and teary eyes. He looked at Tony with some sort of confusion, and that hurt more than Tony would have thought. 

Tony wanted to just scoop him up and kiss his fuzzy brown hair till he was smiling and giggling. Just like he had been when he’d left him in Barnes and Natashas care for the duration of his and Pepper’s trip.

But the poor kid had wet himself he was so scared. Tony wasn't going to touch him until he calmed down a little more.

Tears continued to stream down the little face as he just looked at Tony. Tony just looked back at him, watching the little boy as he shivered against the wall.

“Peter, you got to calm down. Okay? You’re gonna make yourself sick buddy.” He told him in the gentlest voice and tone he could muster up. 

The kid's face scrunched up and he seemed to be able to form a sentence through his fear now. 

“I’m s-sowwy,” he started and followed with multiple sniffles. “I-I-I won’ do it ‘gain.” He managed to stutter out.

“Do what again buddy, what did you do?” Tony asked him, trying to understand what was going on in his kid's head.

“I-I went in yow w-wab.” he let out several more sobs before he went on. “ A-An’ I waden’t suppos’ to.” he finally got out, only to bury his face back into his knees as he sobbed more.

“Peter look at me, buddy,” Tony told him.

Peter eventually raised his head to look at him with miserable little eyes. Tony didn’t say anything he just kept his face calm and looked Peter in the face. He had a few small cuts on his temple and nose, but they didn’t look serious. One had begun to drip blood down his face, but it just mixed in with the tears on his cheeks.

Soon enough through their small staring game, Peter started to breathe better. Tears still filled his eyes and spilled over, it wasn't anything Tony couldn't wipe away though

After several minutes Tony finally moved to pull Peter into his lap. Though he didn’t miss the flinch that came from the boy when he reached towards him. Tony sat him in his lap, the kids back facing the others in the room. He wrapped his suit coat over the boy's figure to wrap around his shoulders. He hugged the boy to his chest as Peters's breathing slowed and became evener. 

Though Peter stayed tense and stiff, he let his dad hold him.

The wetness on Peter had started to seep into Tony's own pants. He ignored it.

Peter finally looked up at Tony, “Aw y-you mad?”

“No baby, I’m not mad,” Tony answered him as he wiped some of his tiny curls off his forehead. But his answer seemed to confuse Peter.

“W-why not?”

Tony paused a second to look at his kid's face. “Do you think I should be mad?” He tried.

Peter looked away from his face to stare down into his lap as he nodded slightly. 

“And why is that, buddy?” 

Peter doesn't answer immediately, just quietly sniffles. 

“I wad’ bad,” he admitted softly.

“And how were you being bad?” he asked calmly again.

Peter didn't answer this time, just stared at Tony confused.

“Were you being bad by going in my lab alone?” Peter nodded in response. “Well, buddy I’m not mad. I’m not happy, but I'm not mad.”

Peter continued to look lost. Not seeming to understand why he wasn't in trouble for doing something he wasn’t supposed to do, “Oh.”

“Do you want to know why I'm unhappy?” He didn’t wait for Peter to answer and just ran the hand that wasn't on the boys back over his own little hands clutching his T-shirt in his lap. “I’m unhappy because you got hurt going somewhere dangerous. I got worried about you”

Peter let out a shuddery little breath and a few more sniffles, and he looked at Tony again.

“A-am I in twouble.” 

“No, you're not.” The answer seemed to shock Peter if his widened eyes were anything to go buy. He also seemed to relax at the words, truly becoming comfortable in Tony's arms. He leaned onto Tony and thunked his head against the man's collar bone.

He rubbed a little fist across his face and sniffed once more.

“But Petey can you tell me why you went to my lab though?” 

“I-I tot you’d be thewe.” Tony couldn't help but smile at the little boy looking up at him with his big chocolate eyes. “I miss’d ou.”

“Aw bud, I missed you too.” Tony laughed and rested his chin on his boy's head. “How’d you manage to get away from your Uncle Bucky, though. I thought he was watching you for me?” Tony glanced over to the crowd in the room watching and saw Bucky look down at the ground trying not to look at Tony.

Since they had been here, he and Tony had been on better terms. Tony would have to talk to him later so he knew he wasn't pissed at him.

“We napped, but I woked up an U’cle Bubby wad’ still sleep,” Peter told him.

“Ah. Being sneaky? We're gonna have to stop letting you be around Loki. I think he's rubbing off on you.” He teased his son.

“Noo..” The little boy whined slightly. Tomy knew the kid adored Loki, much to his own indignation. 

Tony just sat and ran his hand through the little head of hair trying to come up with a way to approach his next question. It was something that had been bothering him since he'd been notified that Peter was having a breakdown.

“Peter, honey can you look at me for a second?”

He did.

“Why were you so afraid of me being mad at you?” He asked calmly hoping not to make him worried. But the kid just curled back up into his lap and started answering.

“My first daddy got weal mad at me a lot if I never list-ined wight.” He said before he put his thumb in his mouth. Something he hadn't done in months since living with Pepper and Tony. Tony recognized it as a nervous habit. He had a feeling the topic of Peter’s biological parents made the kid uneasy. 

The kid's therapist said getting him to talk about the things that happened to him was crucial. Helping him figure out what treatment from his parents was right and what was wrong would be important. 

“Like when you were being bad?” Tony questioned lightly. 

Peter nodded, “He didin ‘ike me boderin him an mama n ‘tuff. Said I wad bein tupid if I couldn be quiets.” He managed around his thumb, gripping onto Tony's dress shirt tighter. He never cried or got upset talking about his parents, but the nervous indicators were always there.

Tony just kept rubbing his back and his arms comfortingly, trying not to show his anger outwardly. Peter would think he was mad at him and then this conversation would be pointless.

Besides, he had Natasha listening. If needed, she would take care of everybody's anger towards the couple.

“Peter, did he ever get mad and hit you for being bad?” 

The kid scrunched up his face and looked at Tony when he answered, “He says I wadnt suppos’ tuh tell anyone.”

Tony gave him a sad smile at the poor kid. “You can tell me, buddy, you can tell me anything okay? There isn't anything he can do if you do,” Tony tried to get him to understand. “He was mean to you when he was mad. It's not nice to hurt people just because you're mad at them, honey.” 

He knew Peter probably wasn’t going to understand that for a while, but Tony felt it needed to be said. Not even the social worker that had been assigned to Peter said anything about any physical abuse. The asshole had probably beat it into Peter that he deserved it or wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. 

The thought made him sick.

All he got in response from the kid was a small hum, probably confused by the information. Tony decided he probably needed to get Peter cleaned up anyways.

“How about we go get cleaned up, huh? Want to ask Pepper if we can have pizza for dinner?” That seemed to catch the boy's attention. 

“Yes peas.” He said trying to hide his excitement. “Why we gotta ask Mama, d’ough?” 

“Because I’m gonna ask her to order it for us.” Tony managed to say as he stood up with Peter in his arms. He kept Peters back to the others, knowing that since he was no longer full-on panicking he’d probably feel embarrassed.

Peter seemed to deflate at the answer though and just looked down at his hands. 

“I made you bo’f come back too soon?” The kid seemed upset by the possibility.

“No baby, we were worried about you.” he tried to sound reassuring, “Besides, I think you're a whole lot more fun than some cranky old guys.

That at least seemed to get Peter to smile and giggle adorably as they walked out of the room. 

He would deal with the others later. His son was taking priority though.

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about writing a 'later on in the day' kind of end to this but might do it as a separate chapter.


End file.
